Ceramist at his wheel on Koh Kret, a small island in the Chao Phraya River near Bangkok

Silk spinner in the village of Bung Boon, Isaan

Silk weaver at her loom, Bung Boon

At Baan Nong Yai in Isaan’s Sisaket Province men labor in an intense tropical heat heightened by the fires of their forges—cutting, hammering, fashioning, and polishing knives for the marketplace.

More metalworkers at Baan Nong Yai

Harvesting rice by hand, Rasi Salai, Sisaket Province

Rice harvesters, Rasi Salai, Sisaket Province

A rice farmer and two of his charges, Sisaket Province

A farmer takes to his boat to traverse flooded fields during the rainy season at Rasi Salai, northeast Thailand.

Hand-harvesting rice, Sisaket

Lone rice harvester, Sisaket

At the start of the rainy season in lower Isaan’s Sisaket Province, a farmer uses a traditional water-buffalo-pulled plow to prepare his rice fields, taking advantage of the early morning's wet soil following a night of heavy rain.

Farmers at work in Khon Kaen, central Isaan, transplanting young rice shoots that have been started in seed beds, thrusting them into the mud of the paddy.

Gardeners at the Royal Agriculture Station Inthanon on the slopes of Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain, northern Thailand

Along the shores and on islands in the Andaman Sea on the west coast of southern Thailand, the so-called sea gypsies—chao lae, or “people of the sea,” to the Thais—live largely on what they are able to harvest from the ocean. Several different ethnic groups are frequently classed together under the broad term sea gypsies.

Among the so-called sea gypsies are those who belong to the Moken ethnic group, whose Malayo-Polynesian language is part of the Austronesian language family; others belong to the Urak Lawoi ethnic group and speak a Thai-influenced language closely related to Malay.

Members of a sea-gypsy family who live along the waterways at Krabi, on the Andaman Sea, southern Thailand

The chao lae have managed to make a living by fishing, diving for oysters and other shells, and by harvesting the edible birds nests, considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, that are found on limestone cliffs in oceanside caves along the shores of the Andaman Sea. However, commercial trawling has depleted areas where they used to fish, their diving areas have been placed off limits in marine national parks, and environmental laws have placed a ban on collecting shells and coral, making survival hard in attempting to pursue their traditional ways of life,

A peddler of what the Thais call “roasted” eggs carries his wares on his shoulder as he traverses Nopparat Thara Beach at Ao Nang, southern Thailand. The boiled eggs are kept warm by the charcoal burner under the wire rack they're on.

Family picnic on the shore of the Andaman Sea and the beach at Ao Nang

On weekends and holidays, the beaches along the bay at Ao Nang undergo a transformation as droves of local residents and visitors descend on the area to get together with friends and family—eating and singing or simply relaxing and enjoying the ambiance of the lovely tropical setting.